Thelema Rabelais 2009
Rabelais is a blend of our best Bordeaux components selected from the 2009 vintage. The wine shows extraordinary concentrations of luscious dark berries, cherries and cedar wood on the nose. The fruit intensity follows through onto the palate with a lovely, long finish. A great investment wine.
This complex and full-bodied wine complements beef and game dishes.
variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Petit Verdot, 5% Merlot ]
winemaker :
wine of origin : Stellenbosch
analysis : alc : 14.59 % vol rs : 1.4 g/l pH : 3.67 ta : 5.7 g/l
type : Red wooded
pack : Bottle size : 750ml closure : Cork
ageing : The carefully selected components of this wine lend themselves perfectly to long term cellaring, 10 – 15 years.
in the vineyard : Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon (80%), CS 338C Petit Verdot (15%), Clone PV 219A Merlot (5%), Clone
MO 192/434
Root stock: 101-14 and R99
Soil type: Hutton – decomposed granite
Age of vines: Planted 2002/2003 & 1988
Plant density: 2000 and 2110 vines per hectare respectively
Trellising: Vertical hedge
Pruning: 2-bud spurs every 12cm
Yield: 6,6 tons/ha (Cabernet), 6.1 tons/ha (PV), 11 tons/ha (Merlot)
Irrigation: Supplementary drip
Long, moderate to dry warm spells led to near perfect ripening conditions. Possibly one of the best vintages the Cape has seen.
Grape sugar: 25.4°B (Cabernet), 25.29 °B (PV) & 25.4 °B (Merlot)
Acidity: 25.4 balling (Cabernet), 25.29 balling (PV) & 25.4 balling (Merlot)
about the harvest: Like 2008, there was a late start to the 2009 harvest. Picking date 11th March (Cabernet), 17th March (PV) & 4th March (Merlot)
pH at harvest: 3.63 (Cabernet), 3.99 (PV) & 3.64 (Merlot)
in the cellar :
Yeasts: Natural occurring yeasts
Fermentation temp: 27°C
Method De-stalked, hand sorted, crushed, pumped into stainless steel fermentation tanks, cold
soak for two days, and pumped over twice a day for 5 days, an aerated pump over in the
morning and a closed circulation in the afternoon. After fermentation the wine is left on the
skins for 2 days before pressing, once pressed wine is racked to barrel for malolactic
fermentation.
Wood Maturation: 20 months in 80% new 225 L French oak barrels
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